Jackie Taylor

Founder and Executive Director - Black Ensemble Theater

As an actress, producer, playwright and founder/executive director of Black Ensemble Theater (BE), Jackie Taylor created the only African American theater located in the culturally, racially and ethnically diverse north side Uptown community.

Founded in 1976 by Jackie, BE has grown from a small community arts organization to a vibrant nationally and internationally renowned arts institution. Over the last 45 years, Jackie has built BE into a platform for driving civic dialogue through theater, making racial equity primary in its mission and unapologetically centering Chicago as a national hub of production. As much as she is rooted in theater and the arts, Jackie is also an entrepreneur, utilizing the theater company as an agent for social change. Jackie’s latest initiative, Free To BE, aims to create a village surrounding the Black Ensemble Theater that will feed into the earned revenue of the theater so that it will sustain itself outside of the dependent revenue streams of ticket sales and fundraising. Free to BE is a 50 million dollar neighborhood revitalization plan that will accelerate economic development, create jobs, foster entrepreneurship, create affordable housing and provide earned revenue for Black Ensemble Theater. Grounded in collaboration with local community partners, businesses, cultural institutions, government leaders and strategic partners, the Free To BE Village will be an impactful cultural corridor that serves as a global model for engaged community development.

Jackie has a firm, immovable vision of racial equity in all her work. With a vision defining all aspects of BE, she has created a theater company committed to eradicating racism that is recognized throughout the nation for its outstanding original productions and exceptional educational outreach programs. As an actress she refused all roles that were derogatory in their portrayal of African Americans and made that a core mission of Black Ensemble Theater. As president of the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago for the past 24 years, Jackie has worked directly with most African American arts leaders in Chicago to help them strengthen capacity and grow their organizations. She has changed the culture, trajectory and narrative for hundreds of arts organizations and individual artists, providing resources, creating programs and developing systems that directly affect their sustainability and effectiveness.